Ok, I am at work today and a bride with not appointment comes in. I get to "field" her questions. She opens up her "suitcase" like bag and pulls out pic after pic of cakes. She likes this that and the other. Ok, this is really a simple no brainer so far. She has everything done to colors, brought in swatches, picked flavors, flowers. This is like the perfect bride. Then she opens up a wilton wedding book and show me how she plans to have her cakes plated. There is at least 3/8 to 1/2 in fruit jell inbetween each layer. I see that there is going to be trouble. Our decorators put a thin layer of fruit filling between each layer to prevent the cakes from sliding. She wants a 6 tier stacked cake but insists that she "HAS" to have at least that much filling for her cakes, after all wilton wouldn't show it if it couldn't be done! My mgr. thinks I need to bend over backwards to keep this cake, haven't I heard about the economy. Bakeries are the first people cut out. The decorators say no way. Is there anyway you can put that much filling inbetween layers and not have the filling gushing out the sides and be able to nicely plate the cake? I can see doing a really wide dam might work but how would you cut it? I have no idea how to make it work, any ideas?

Tell her the consistancy of that filling would have to be like toothpaste...LOL

The rule of thumb in pastry school is no more than a 1/4 inch of filling. Anything more than that is a disaster waiting to happen. Explain to your customer that those food pictures are staged...and even if they managed to put that much real filling in the cake they didn't have to transport it anywhere. The pictures were taken on site.

Can you torte the layers of cake thinner and add more layers of filling and cake to satisfy her? I mean you'd have to charge more for the hassle but she would get more filling this way - maybe 5 layers of 1/4 filling and 6 layers of 1/2" thick cake? Just a thought...if she goes this way I would definitely make up a sample for her to approve. The filling's definitely gonna have to be thick!

The other thought that I had was perhaps you could have the caterer add a dollop of fruit filling as a garnish on each plate served, or serve it with a fruit sauce?

Just trying to think out of the box to satisfy her...good luck with this one.

You could use a stiff buttercream to pipe multiple circles on the areas to be filled (picture a bullseye before you fill n the gaps with the fruit filling) The extra buttercream would add a some amount of support for the extra filling, and then you would need to dowel each cake to prevent shifting. It's certainly not normal for so much filling, but I think it could be done. I would certainly crumbcoat and allow the layers to rest/settle overnight. I would imagine it would get messy though during cutting. Good luck!

What DDiva said. Food photography is frequently NOT real food. Food Network had a Food Styling competition last year. It was verrrrry interesting.

I know you posted this over a week ago, but I thought I'd add my idea anyway! If I had this request I picture myself trying to use thicker cake layers and carving out a "moat" with cake higher on the edges and higher in the very center for support. Then I would fill the "moat" with all of that filling. Maybe that's asking for trouble too, but it seems like it might work to me.

Jessmar that was my very first thought as well. I have done them like that before and it worked out well.